Great advice on helping your teen achieve in school from the book “How to Survive a Move” (Hundreds of Heads Books, www.hundredsofheads.com, $13.95), straight from people who’ve done it:

“My son’s senior year in high school was hard for all of us because he was never a very good student, he never quite fit the structured mode of academia and he was diagnosed with ADD. By his senior year he was goofing off and cutting classes. We didn’t know until the day of graduation whether he’d be able to participate. The only things that seemed to help were channeling his energies into something constructive that he liked doing. He loved going to summer camp and would come home happy and feeling really good about himself. When he was 16, he got interested in the Civil War and immersed himself in learning about it. We outfitted him and encouraged him to join a Civil War reenactment group. After he graduated, we sent him off to Germany for the summer and that was a good learning experience for him — he ended up staying a full year.”

—Elaine, Seattle, mother of a 24-year-old son and 17-year-old daughter

“We experienced a dramatic difference in my daughter’s school performance starting in the eighth grade, and it wasn’t until 12th grade that she showed a consistent interest in working well in school. But we had a terrible time with her. We tried everything to keep her in school: We grounded her, took away her allowance, talked with her calmly, spent quality time with her, talked with her peers, sent her to counseling, and even let her take a correspondence course for a year. Ultimately, we found that you have to keep trying different things and keep letting the child know you love them.”

—Mariah, Toronto, mother of two sons, 24 and 23, and an 18-year-old daughter

“If she does something wrong, I don’t come unglued. One time, she brought home a progress report with a D. She’d never gotten anything less than an A. She was worried about how we’d react, but we didn’t crush her spirit. We advised her on how to fix it. By the end of the semester, it was fixed.”

—Chip Norton, Washougal, Wash., father of a 13-year-old daughter

“I’m convinced I was in school more than my son for a few years. I went to so many parent-teacher meetings about my son’s tendency to hang out in the park instead of his classes that I should have gotten the diploma!”

—Anonymous, Charleston, S.C., parent of two sons, 18 and 15, and two daughters, 12 and 2

“Parents need to show how and why schoolwork is relevant to the child’s life and future aspirations, and to make sure school has meaning and worth to the child.”

—Bev Walton-Porter, Colorado Springs, Colo., mother of a 14-year-old son

Hundreds of Heads Books’ survival guides offer the wisdom of the masses by assembling the experiences and advice of hundreds of people who have gone through life’s biggest challenges and have insight to share.